“William Gladstone has not a single redeeming defect.”

Justice is truth in action.

Faith hovers over the towers of Jerusalem; and Athens embodies the pre-eminent quality of the antique world, Art.

Man is made to adore and to obey: but if you will not command him, if you give him nothing to worship, he will fashion his own divinities, and find a chieftain in his own passions.

Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action.

Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most.

The fool wonders, the wise man asks.

Assassination has never changed the history of the world.

Power has only one duty – to secure the social welfare of the People.

As for our majority… one is enough.

When a man fell into his anecdotage it was a sign for him to retire from the world.

No Government can be long secure without a formidable Opposition.

Damn your principles! Stick to your party.

The difference between a misfortune and a calamity is this: If Gladstone fell into the Thames, it would be a misfortune. But if someone dragged him out again, that would be a calamity.

A man may speak very well in the House of Commons, and fail very completely in the House of Lords.

The world is governed by very different personages from what is imagined by those who are not behind the scenes.

Nine-tenths of the existing books are nonsense and the clever books are the refutation of that nonsense.

General, man is very useful. He can fly and he can kill. But he has one defect: He can think.

Have they defected? They have not gone yet.

The more defects a man may have, the older he is, the less lovable, the more resounding his success.

We know our friends by their defects rather than by their merits.

I have always been more interested in creating a character that contains something crippled. I think nearly all of us have some kind of defect.

Some people displease with merit, and others’ very faults and defects are pleasing.

The defects of the mind, like those of the face, grow worse with age.

The defects and faults of the mind are like wounds in the body; after all imaginable care has been taken to heal them up, still there will be a scar left behind, and they are in continual danger of breaking the skin and bursting out again.